Parceiros

I never managed to enjoy computer games that much. Especially with the car games, I always lose the excitement and get bored of playing games on computer. It was based on fake driving and not giving the same pleasure like driving. So I ignored games for very long time.

However, couple of days of I saw the Need For Speed Hot Pursuit in iTunes and I wanted to try it. I knew that I will get bored and delete it in couple of days. But this time, everything is totally different! The game is excellent, I enjoyed playing so much that my batteries finished in one battery (usual it lasts for two days). I know that it is fake driving but the scenario is so great, I did not even think it was boring for a minute.

Now I am very close to drive Bugatti Veyron as a police car and it is not very hard to play on iPhone. If you are getting bored nowadays or could not find a gift for your friend. This can be a very good idea :)

A few weeks ago I received an invitation to Ford Focus Global Drive event in London. This was my first event as a blogger. Event took place in Hub, London and it has an excellent interior; a good place for my first event. Unfortunately, this event did not have the new Ford Focus, it was about the Global Drive campaign.

You might wonder what Global Drive is! We all know what Ford Focus is :) Global Drive is a campaign to donate $10 000 to a charity. This campaign does not finish here, in addition to support a charity you will have chance to drive the new Ford Focus in Spain :) And the costs are covered by Ford. Sounds great!

What you have to do? Go to your Facebook page and type this to your address bar http://www.facebook.com/FordFocus then Like it :) And does this “create a video that is no longer than 2 minutes explaining why you want to be one of the first to test drive the 2012 Ford Focus and how you'd start something more for a good cause with the local market equivalent of $10,000 (USD). Be creative!” That’s all :)

I have just recently found a concept vehicle from Volkswagen and I decided to share with you. No, I didn’t hit my head to wall and decided to change the concept of my blog. This concept is London Taxi concept. I really don’t know whether it will be production or not but even this possibility made me happy.

If you ever visited UK, you might have noticed the lovely Black Cab. They look very nostalgic from outside and they do their best to make you feel the nostology inside your internal organs. Because, their rear suspension is still leaf spring. The same suspension system which can be seen in Gladiator movie (Movie took place in BC times)! Each terrain alteration is directly sent your spinal cord with no point. I have no idea why they still use this meaningless technology in 2010! Probably the answer is; it is cheap.

It looks amazing from each angle. I really like the current Black Cab but there is no need to accommodate something which deserve place in British Museum. Actually I was expecting to see rear hinged doors for better comfort. Black Cab’s main advantage is spacious interior and Rolls Royce style rear doors! VW just missed that point. And it should be right hand drive!

Today we finally have iPhone application for Aston Martin. Actually I was waiting for this application for long time. And my curiosity was getting higher and higher after each twitter post from Aston Martin about the application. Aston Martin was talking about the application and some preview pictures were posted but that was all. Basically, it made everyone more excited to wait for the release!

In overall, the application is great and offers everything about Aston Martin in a very cleaver design. After this application you may not visit the website that often. It has everything and updates through internet :) But I could not manage to use accelerometer properly. I did some movements but it wasn’t that successful to rev the engine. If I could manage to use it properly, I will write it here.

I don’t want talk too much about the application. Just enjoy the application :) And it is "free" :)

I just can’t understand why technological gadgets are so expensive. I do know that answer, they are complicated technology and research & development investments must be cleared. That’s okay but sometime they are pointlessly so expensive. Especially the Sony Vaio X Netbook. This is a new netbook from Sony which is only 0,78kg not even a kilo! I tried this netbook, it is extremely light. You cannot even feel it. On the other hand, that’s a netbook with a slow CPU. Everything you are paying for less weight. This extremely light technology is around € 1900.

What can we have for €1900 in terms car? Very quick answer you can buy a 2000 or 2001 model Audi A3! A car with four doors, one engine and four wheels. Even though I don’t like Audis, it is not a bad brand and it will survive more than the netbook. Also it won’t be depreciated like a one year old netbook. Next year, this netbook will be half price may be it won’t be available. So its price will dive into bottom. But A3 will be costing very similar to this price.

In 1997 Mercedes introduced the five speed auto gearbox. At those years, sending and receiving text message was a distinctive feature in mobile phones. And Walkman was still popular, actually nobody ever considered MP3 as a future threat at those years. Five speed auto was something really amazing and exciting at those years and Mercedes offered this technology nearly in whole model range starting from A-Class. At the same time, rest of the world were struggling with four speed auto. I know many people don’t care about one extra gear but that extra gear means, extra efficiency, better acceleration, less noise and low emission.

These good advantages of five speed auto gearbox stuck too much with Mercedes products. Walkman disappeared from the world, MP3 players are the most important gadget, mobile phones are capable of doing nearly everything. The world has changed but Mercedes insisted to use this old technology. But in 2003, they introduced 7 speed auto (7G Tronic) for V6 and V8 engines and the rest of the small engines left with pre-historic technology.

Now BMW, Audi and VW offers 8 speed auto. Yes, eight speed! This means, they have better fuel efficiency, better acceleration, less noise and less emission than equivalent Mercedes. Hopefully Mercedes realized this problem and introduced 7G Tronic Plus. The difference of Plus version is the capability of start/stop function in an auto gearbox. And they introduced in four cylinder new CLS. The CLS 250 CDi is a four cylinder engine which available in C and E classes and coupled with 7 speed new technology gearbox.

What do all mean? Basically, do not buy a C or E Class four cylinder model until Mercedes offers the 7G Tronic Plus in those vehicles. Because you will have a gearbox which is already used by the Alexander The Great!

Yesterday was the first year of my blog. Exactly one year ago, suddenly I started a blog about car and life. Actually I was thinking about this for long time but I received main encouragement from Alan Mitchell. I met him Nottingham around two years ago and he advised me to express my ideas on a blog. And I did it!

In one year time, I received 8200 visitors from 115 different countries. With a basic mathematics, my blog was read by nearly sixty percentage of the world. I think this is not a bad number for a car blog. Another fact on my blog is the number page views; 8200 visitors read 13468 pages! And I would like to thank my reader from Google Inc for reading my blog nearly eight hours. I think he left the browser open for “very” long time. Unless, he/she knows my blog better than I do :)

How many posts did I make? 407.

I would like to thank everyone who tweet my blog on twitter and placed my blog as a link in forums. Also I would like to thank Mercedes-Benz for their ambition on research & development and for their interesting product :) I am sorry to pulling your leg all the time but your cars are excellent in terms of technology. Moreover, I would like to thank Land Rover PR team for their kindness. Unfortunately I still did not see a real Evoque yet :)

Today I was planning to write totally something else but when I consider the weather today in UK, I decided to publish these videos. There are four luxury vehicles placed in same position for snow climbing test. The test was conducted in Russian and I have no idea what they are saying but I can understand, all vehicles have their winter tyres on. The first one is Mercedes-Benz S500 4MATIC, second one BMW 750 xDrive, third one is ab old Audi A8 4,2 Quattro and the last one is Porsche Panamera. I don't know the exactly model of Panamera but I did not hear any turbo sound, so it could be 4S!

All these vehicles have four-wheel drive systems but each of them have different technologies. Mercedes calls it 4MATIC, Audi calls is Quattro, BMW calls it xDrive and Porsche just names it as "4". Basically their four-wheels have power from the engine but the distribution and functionality is totally different in each car.

Mercedes 4MATIC: Front %45, Rear %55

BMW xDrive: Front %40, Rear %60

Audi Quattro: Front %40, Rear %60

Porsche: Constantly changing, no pre-determined split

Explanation; power from the engine goes to forty percentage to front wheels and fifty five percentage to rear wheels in Mercedes. But the electronic systems ASR, ESP constantly changing the power between wheels to increase traction. However, all these vehicles are near more than two-tonnes, so don't expect a great performance !

In my opinion; all these cars are showing great performance. Mainly they are not designed for this kind terrain, they have huge wide tyres which reduces the pressure on snow and they are very heavy.

I was thinking the Fast and Furious nightmare was ended but I was wrong! Honestly, I have never liked any Fast & Furious movies. Okay, the first was nice and they should have finished there but the Fast & Furious turned into a black hole. I mean Fast & Furious turned into an endless loop. Fast Five is the fifth version of Fast & Furious. You can guess the scenario! There are lots of heavily modified, unknown cars. They running from someone, they are carrying something and drivers are shouting. Lots of dull 3D effects and etc, etc.

There is one thing is more boring that a Toyota is Fast & Furious! And I have a suggestion for next movie. As you know that, environmental cars became more popular and especially in US. For the six movie they should name is Slow & Calm, and they should place heavily modified hybrid cars :)

Nowadays the whole world is struggling with snow. There are lots of lots of lots advices on internet, TV, newspapers, magazines. But they are all the same. Replace your tyres with winter tyres, prepare your snow chains, drive slowly, don’t make sudden reaction, buy de-icing chemicals, have a duvet in your car and etc, etc, etc. For rich people, they are buying SUVs but my advice is totally different :)

If you want to survive in heavy winter conditions, buy a Mercedes-Benz Unimog. My recommendation is the U500 model but you can buy the U300 or U400 too! This vehicle is the king of the any terrain. It is nearly indestructible, can go everywhere, can do anything. It is beyond your imaginations. Forgot the National Geographic TV shows, Unimog can do anything. If you want to move your house, Unimog can do it.

I really love this vehicle, it has every Mercedes-Benz technology inside. Sure, this is a truck but the most domestic one :) U500 is producing 286 from six cylinder turbo diesel engine and coupled with 16 forward and 14 reverse gears. You didn’t read wrong, 16 forward and 14 reverse gears! This lunatic gearbox is also automatic! 1120Nm torque, this is the thing which will move your house. Electronic Quick Reverse system which helps you to go forward and backward rapidly. You can control tyre pressure from inside. And it has lots of lots different systems, and it is very easy to drive it.

If you are very rich, you can buy the luxury version “Brabus Unimog”. This version has more luxury but the rest is the same.

In addition, you can connect snow cleaning system in front your bumper and help other people :) Try not to stuck, because you have to find something bigger than this!